I have a backlog of things I should post about, especially since this is me attempting to keep in touch with old friends, but I have been thinking about one thing in particular all day today.
You know when people scream in stores or parking lots and no one pays attention? I think ignoring such cries is ridiculous. From a very young age our parents and other authority figures tell us that yelling is the way to get attention if kidnapped, threatened, hurt, or other wise endangered. It took me a long time to understand what has dulled us as a society to plaintive cries for help and the answer presented itself to me in the form of a childhood story - The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
Most, if not all, know this story. A boy from a village cries "wolf" and people come running to protect him. He is told not to cry for help unless help is really needed. He cries "wolf" again. There is once again no wolf. This goes on long enough that when there really is a wolf no one answers his cry. The boy dies. The moral of this story is supposed to be "don't lie", (well, that's not the Aesop version of the moral, but you get the idea) but I think the moral of this story should be "don't yell like something is wrong when everything is perfectly fine".
I do not care how much fun it might be to run through a department store yelling for help like someone is chasing you with horrid intentions. Such actions make people less likely to pay attention when something truly sinister is occurring. Think about how little time people have to scream when being abducted. They might have time for one full scream of the word "help"... maybe. They might not have time to say the entire word. Would you notice? I think that on most days I would just continue on with life, probably a little ticked off that someone was yelling. Last week was different. I went to work and began my daily, never ending task when suddenly I was tuned in to every scream in the store.
I still am uncertain why my senses were so heightened. Every time some little kid or frat boy yelled I was scared for them and almost ran in their direction. Every time the yell was only in play, and every time I tried to listen a little less.
Towards the end of my shift I was standing behind the counter helping a customer when two little boys ran up and one said "Can you help us find-" and ran off. I figured their parents had sent them to look for something and he had seen it while he was asking. It would not have been the first time. Little kids are way better at finding things in retail stores. I kept working but something was nagging at me. A few minutes later the boys came back. I noticed that the youngest one looked scared. The older one was probably only five or six but he marched up to the counter again and said "We're lost. Can you help us find who we're with?"
I think my mouth actually fell open. I thought 'Why haven't their parents told someone they were missing? Why did they pick me? Why did they run away the first time? What the heck am I supposed to do now?' and a lot of other things all at once. I told the boy that of course I would help him and at this point a woman marched up and asked me to do a price check for her... I mean, seriously? This one kid is crying, there is obviously no adult, I'm trying to help them and you stop me to ask how much something with a price label costs... ugh. I told her where she could find a scanner and went back to more important matters.
It turned out that the boys had not come with their parents but a baby sitter - whose name they did not remember. I radioed for help and took the boys up to front of the store. No response on the radio. No one to help when I got to the front of the store. This is about the time the youngest one starting saying that he just wanted to "get out". He ran for the door. I followed. Because I was carrying a store radio the alarms went off. Of course people tried to stop me even though they clearly saw the little kids running without parents. Grr. I tried to explain and told them I was going right back into the store and as soon as this was all sorted they could do whatever they liked with me. They still tried to stop me. I finally got the kid to come back. His older brother was actually very helpful in talking him back into the store. We went back to the front of the store and I finally got some help, and the youngest child ran again. Again I had to deal with the alarms. The people trying to stop me were more forceful and the kid actually got into the parking lot this time. I was upset, but somehow the kid decided to come back before he was run over.
As I brought him back to where his brother was waiting with my help their babysitter was rounding the corner as well. It was all over in probably fifteen or twenty minutes but I was relieved to be done with it. I kept wondering if I would have paid any attention to those kids on a different day when I was dulled to the world a little. I kept thinking of all of the horrible things that could have happened. Could still happen to other little kids. It drove me a little nuts.
Anyway, all this to say - next time someone yells, pay attention. If they are in trouble, help. If they are in no danger, tell them the story of the boy who cried wolf.
11/10/10
11/4/10
Research in Music
I have decided to post here my documentation for an upcoming competition to see what my music friends think of it and whether or not it is stupid. Please do not copy, steal, cut, paste, sniff, or otherwise plagiarize it.
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Written by John Dowland, In Darkness Let Me Dwell was originally published in a book entitled Musicall Banquet. Dowland contributed three songs to this book (including the one I have endeavored to study), which was a compilation put together by his son Robert. The book was originally published in 1610, though the song I chose was written several years before.
I. About the composer:
John Dowland was likely born in the year 1563 as indicated by his introduction in A Pilgrim’s Solace and Varietie of Lute-Lessons. Though his birth place is debated he spent the majority of his life either in England or continental Europe. A talented singer, lutenist, and performer he was a prolific composer and held several court appointments. He received a Bachelors of Music from two colleges, Christ Church, Oxford in 1588 and the other most likely from Cambridge (though some argue his second degree came from Trinity College in Dublin). He does not speak of his parentage or childhood in depth, but in reference to his musical development he writes “from my childhood I haue euer aymed at [it], sundry times leauing my native country, the better to attain so excellent a science”[1]
In 1580, Dowland went to Paris as a servant for Sir Henry Cobham, possibly to further his musical studies, and while there was converted from a Protestant to Catholic faith. He later came to believe that this conversion was a hindrance to his career because of his inability to receive an English court appointment until very late in life. While he believed this lack of appointment was caused by his religious affiliation, the idea may not be well founded. This is evidenced by the public declaration issued in 1571 by Queen Elizabeth letting her citizens know that as long as they did not break the law she had no intention of bothering them about their religion. Whatever the reason for his rejection, Dowland continued to seek out appointments in other courts until he was finally accepted to the court in England. His major works The First, Second, and Third Booke of Songes or Ayres were published in 1597, 1600, and 1603 respectively, followed by A Pilgrim’s Solace in 1612.
II. About the piece and its performance:
I am using an edited, modern score with the lute tablature transcribed for keyboard instruments. Generally, the vocal line of this piece would be accompanied by the lute, but as I neither play the lute nor know anyone who does, I am accompanying myself on a small lever harp. This change in instruments will lead to a different sound in the accompaniment because of the difference in resonant qualities as well as tones created by different string fibers. Typically lute strings were made of animal intestine while my harp is currently strung with nylon. The sound of the nylon strings is brighter than gut would have been, but as gut is harder to keep in tune because of sensitivities to temperature and humidity (not to mention the expense and time) I have not changed my strings for this performance. However, I have changed, by moving up an octave, or simply left out several notes because of my harp’s lack in the lower register.
When deciding how to sing the piece I found that general practice of the time was to use a straight tone with little vibrato. The purpose of singing was to convey the meaning of the piece in every aspect of the song it. The words must be clear and the dynamics and tone must convey the correct emotion and not interfere with it. In a book which Dowland translated there are “ten precepts necessary for every singer”[2] of these number three states: “Let every singer conform his voice to the words, that as much as he can he make the Concent sad when the words are sad: and merry when they are merry.”[3] Using this as a guideline I have attempted to fit my voice to the mood of grief found within the poetry of the song.
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(End notes (because I couldn't transfer the page breaks) are below the Bibliography)____
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Dowland, John. Andreas Ornithoparcus His Micrologus, or Introduction: Containing the Art of Singing. (London, 1609). Quoted in MacClintock. Readings in the History of Music in Performance. Indiana University Press, 1994.
Dowland, John. In Darkness Let Me Dwell. Edited by Edmund H. Fellows. Revised by David Scott. London: Stainer and Bell Ltd., 1997.
Dowland, John. The First Booke of Songes or Ayres. 1597. Quoted in Poulton, Diana. John Dowland. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1982.
Elliott, Martha. Singing in Style: A Guide to Vocal Performance Practices. Yale University Press, 2008.
Erber, James. “Preface.” In John Dowland Fifty Songs for High Voice Book 2, 2. London: Stainer and Bell Ltd., 1997.
Kimball, Carol. Song: a guide to art song style and literature. Hal Leonard Company, 2006
Nadal, David. Lute Songs of John Dowland: The Original First and Second Books Including Dowland’s Original Lute Tablature. Dover Publications, 1997.
Poulton, Diana. John Dowland. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1982.
[1] John Dowland, The First Booke of Songes or Ayres, 1597 Quoted in Diana Poulton, John Dowland (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1982), 26.
[2] John Dowland, Andreas Ornithoparcus His Micrologus, or Introduction: Containing the Art of Singing (London, 1609), quoted in MacClintock, Readings in the History of Music in Performace, (Indiana University Press), 160.
[3] Ibid.